Sports

College Coaches Cashing In

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MIAMI (CBS4) – If you ever wondered just how much of a cash business college football has become in the Football Bowl Subdivision, look no further than the major schools in Florida.

The numbers, from a survey conducted by USA Today, found staggering salaries for the head coaches of the major schools in Florida. Combined, the head coaches at the major Florida public schools made $9.67 million in 2010.

Add in former University of Miami, a private school, former head coach Randy Shannon’s more than $1.5 million contract and the coaches pulled in over $10 million for 2010 alone.

The University of Central Florida in Orlando pays George O’Leary $1.325 million per season. Florida International and Florida Atlantic pay Mario Cristobal and Howard Schnellenberger around $400,000 per season.

Former Florida head coach Urban Meyer had the largest pay day of any coach in the state of Florida. Meyer made $4.01 million per year as the head coach of the Gators.

Florida State head coach Jimbo Fisher, who is now the longest tenured coach of the Big Three schools in the Sunshine State, made $1.8 million for leading the Seminoles in 2010. While Skip Holtz pulled in $1.7 million in his first season as head coach of the University of South Florida Bulls.

So what will nearly $10 million in salary buy record wise for the public schools in Florida? A .720 winning percentage, or roughly 7 wins per school.

But if you really want to see the cash roll in, check out what the University of Alabama pays their coach; over $5 million per season, and it’s a public school.

Alabama head coach, and South Florida pariah, Nick Saban is paid $5.16 million by the university and receives another $830 thousand from other sources for a total salary of just under $6 million. Saban can also receive a maximum bonus of $700 thousand which would put his maximum compensation at more than $6.5 million.

UM fans had better be ready to pony up some serious money to get one of the big name coaches into the school. The salaries for the coaches mentioned for the job are as follows: Randy Edsall – $1.55 million, Kevin Sumlin – $1 million, Bobby Petrino – $2.7 million, Bo Pelini – $2.1 million, and Tommy Tuberville – $1.5 million.